OCCUPY DISNEY! - Dec TR - Updated 1/26!

[tankgirl427]

So today I finally finished up my October TR and I'm a week away from my January trip, so I might as well start on my December TR!

Who Am I?

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m163/tankgirl427/December%202011/332068_2805131454005_1430207100_33045952_140602870 9_o.jpg

Hi! I'm Betsy. I live outside of Boston and live about a mile away from a Disney Store. :rolleyes1 I decided yesterday if I ever lose my job again I might as well apply to work there since that's where most of my money ends up. I love Belle, but Rapunzel is pretty up there too. My favorite ride is BTMRR. I love Pooh's Puffed toast and I've been waiting a year to eat some WPE.

In August, AP discount came out for the rest of the year. I have always wanted to stay at the AKL so I booked a couple nights in December and then realized it was way too expensive to stay at for a quick two night trip. So I started pricing other hotels while texting a friend's wife and AP holder to see if she was interested. Within 24 hours we had confirmed we would be going, picked which weekend, and booked ourselves for three nights at Pop Century.

Enter Shelly: (not the best photo but most photos are on her camera which I don't have yet)

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m163/tankgirl427/December%202011/Untitled.jpg

Shelly would totally fit with this group if I could get her to find free time and sign up.

So we were off to Pop Century from December 9th - 12th with MVMCP on the 11th.

Join us on our crazy fun filled long weekend trip to the World!

[tankgirl427]

Planning of the Trip! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43583797&postcount=10)
It's Time to Go! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43594393&postcount=18)
Time to Go to Disney! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43602029&postcount=27)
Day 1 - 12/10 HS EMH Morning (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43617936&postcount=36)
Day 1 - 12/10 Afternoon/Evening (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43629613&postcount=43)
Day 1 - 12/10 MK EMH (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43805195&postcount=52)
Day 2 - 12/11 Epcot Morning (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43805848&postcount=53)
Day 2 - 12/11 Getting Ready for MVMCP at the MK! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43857609&postcount=58)

[KatMark]

So today I finally finished up my October TR and I'm a week away from my January trip, so I might as well start on my December TR!

Who Am I?

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m163/tankgirl427/December%202011/332068_2805131454005_1430207100_33045952_140602870 9_o.jpg

Hi! I'm Betsy. I live outside of Boston and live about a mile away from a Disney Store. :rolleyes1 I decided yesterday if I ever lose my job again I might as well apply to work there since that's where most of my money ends up. I love Belle, but Rapunzel is pretty up there too. My favorite ride is BTMRR. I love Pooh's Puffed toast and I've been waiting a year to eat some WPE.

In August, AP discount came out for the rest of the year. I have always wanted to stay at the AKL so I booked a couple nights in December and then realized it was way too expensive to stay at for a quick two night trip. So I started pricing other hotels while texting a friend's wife and AP holder to see if she was interested. Within 24 hours we had confirmed we would be going, picked which weekend, and booked ourselves for three nights at Pop Century.

Enter Shelly: (not the best photo but most photos are on her camera which I don't have yet)

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m163/tankgirl427/December%202011/Untitled.jpg

Shelly would totally fit with this group if I could get her to find free time and sign up.

So we were off to Pop Century from December 9th - 12th with MVMCP on the 11th.

Join us on our crazy fun filled long weekend trip to the World!

Betsy, I'm here and can't wait to follow along. :goodvibes

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

Joining in!!! Can't wait to hear more! :yay:

[Nermel9]

I'm here, can't wait to hear about your trip, and see if we were in the same place at any time! :rotfl: That reminds me, I really have to update my December TR...maybe tomorrow morning!

[solana131]

I'm in too. Wow! Did I make first page?! I've never done that before :)
Which Disney store do you live near? I just went to the Manchester one last weekend and they had NOTHING! I mean, they had toys and pjs and a few princess things, but nothing at all for adult clothing and hardly anything for 5 year old boy either. Very dissappointing trip....we are about 2 hours away from Manchester, but it is the closest one. Wondering if your store has more. I could travel to Boston area just as easily as Manchester.

[annmarieda]

:yay::yay: I am here!!! What a perfect title!!!

[swwake]

I'm here too! Can't wait to read more.

[tankgirl427]

Betsy, I'm here and can't wait to follow along. :goodvibes

Hey Kathy, Good to see you! You're first! Yippee!!!!:cheer2:

Joining in!!! Can't wait to hear more! :yay:

Hi Sara. I can't wait for next week especially if the decorations are still up!

I'm here, can't wait to hear about your trip, and see if we were in the same place at any time! :rotfl: That reminds me, I really have to update my December TR...maybe tomorrow morning!

Morning Nermel! We might have been! We were definitely closer than we knew!:lmao:

I'm in too. Wow! Did I make first page?! I've never done that before :)
Which Disney store do you live near? I just went to the Manchester one last weekend and they had NOTHING! I mean, they had toys and pjs and a few princess things, but nothing at all for adult clothing and hardly anything for 5 year old boy either. Very dissappointing trip....we are about 2 hours away from Manchester, but it is the closest one. Wondering if your store has more. I could travel to Boston area just as easily as Manchester.

Welcome! I live near the Square One Mall, I think there and Braintree are the only two Disney stores near Boston. They have a decent selection for adults, mostly t-shirts, but some sweatshirts and they have stuff for a 5 year old boy since my neighbor brings her 4 year old there and we have a blast!

:yay::yay: I am here!!! What a perfect title!!!

Hey Ann! Oh you missed where the title came from. It had us giggling the whole plane ride home! BTW we have to take another trip together so we get a photo of us!

I'm here too! Can't wait to read more.

Hi Susan. How's having Katie home? I am on the edge of my seat waiting to hear all about your trip, the wand picking, and the excitement of moving to Disney!

[tankgirl427]

Before I get on with D-day (departure, Disney, delighted, whatever) I want to start at the beginning of the planning for this trip, which in itself was very easy compared to the planning for October's trip.

Shelly and I decided that we were going to go for a long weekend since the price at Pop was so reasonable, and we figured out which weekend. Then we started to look at airfare, I had miles from Delta for getting their cc when I booked my first flight for the January trip, which I later had refunded since they changed my non-stop flights to connecting flights. The Delta flights from Boston to MCO were at ridiculous times (10am or 2pm), but the flights coming back from MCO weren't too bad (11am or 6pm). We decided to go with the 6pm and traded in the mileage for $100 off each one of our fares, bringing the grand total to our flight back to $71 combined! :banana: When I got my statement I had an additional $50 credit bringing the total now to $21! :scared1::dance3::yay::woohoo::banana::worship: :cool1::cheer2: I guess if you get the Delta cc and purchase a flight within the first three months of having it you get a $50 credit.

So we had our flight back purchased and we only needed a flight down there, we were torn between taking Air Tran at 6pm and Jet Blue at 8pm, basically it boiled down to the fact that Air Tran was $20 cheaper and got us there 2 hours earlier so we'd be in Disney sooner. We booked Air Tran and settled in for the wait, in the mean time I had found us a pre park ADR for Crystal Palace on 12/11 the day we were planning on going to the Christmas Party! We knew what we wanted to accomplish and which days we could do it in and our plans were set!

At this point, I compared our quick trip with Ann's PTR since I thought she was maybe showing up that same weekend. Not only was she going to be there, but her flight would landed 1/2 hour before ours on the same day and she was staying at Pop for the first two days too! And she and her family were planning on going to MVMCP on the 11th! Small World! We made arrangements to take the ME over to Pop together and hopefully see one another at the Christmas Party.

After finding this out, started the long wait for the countdown for my October trip, where I got to know Ann a WHOLE lot better!

When I came back, I was anxiously awaiting December. Shelly called me one day and let me know she got an email from Air Tran that our fights had changed. There were no more non-stop flights from Boston to MCO, so we called and got a refund. Then we needed a new flight down to MCO. Really the only option that was left was Jet Blue, there was a 4:40pm or a 8pm flight. The 4:40 flight would put us an hour ahead of Ann, so we might not be able to meet at ME, but I would try to make it work! We booked and enjoyed having everything set...... until the December hours changed! Now MK was opening at 8am on the 11th, so our pre-park breakfast was no more! I dropped the reservation and started looking for one on the 12th that would be pre-park since it was the only day. In the meantime, Ann said she was doing the same thing, so I asked if she would want to eat together since the meal was OOP for her and I have TIW. She agreed and I searched for 6, 4, or 2 people in the MK before the park opened. A few days before the trip I found it! A 8:40am pre-park breakfast at CRT. I snatched it up and put down three adults and one child. Whether it was Shelly and myself with Ann and Zoe or Ann's family or all of us, at least we had a reservation!

Finally settled, I overpacked my suitcase for three days and enough decorations to decorate most of Pop and waited for Friday to get here!

[swwake]

Hi Susan. How's having Katie home? I am on the edge of my seat waiting to hear all about your trip, the wand picking, and the excitement of moving to Disney!Oh we are loving having Katie at home! I will try to update my TR at least once this weekend. I'm off Monday, so I may just write a bunch of the TR and save the posts to make them a couple of days apart moving forward.

I can't believe how well you summarized all of the planning and changes into a single post!

[annmarieda]

:rotfl: "I overpacked my suitcase for three days and enough decorations to decorate most of Pop"

Yes, yes you did... but it was AMAZING! I hope you got pictures. I plan to put the ones I took up on my TR. Oh...and your tree. I have it. I just need to box it up to send back to you. (I put it up at home too since my real tree was quite dead when I got home) Course, the tree couldn't stay up for long since my Kitty, grr seemed to think that she needed to have an epic battle with it.

[tankgirl427]

Oh we are loving having Katie at home! I will try to update my TR at least once this weekend. I'm off Monday, so I may just write a bunch of the TR and save the posts to make them a couple of days apart moving forward.

I can't believe how well you summarized all of the planning and changes into a single post!

My parents loved having me at home, but I couldn't stand it since I had a taste of living on my own (within the confines of school) and it was very weird not being there. This trip was a breeze to plan and we didn't have one headache, except losing the pre park ADR time.

:rotfl: "I overpacked my suitcase for three days and enough decorations to decorate most of Pop"

Yes, yes you did... but it was AMAZING! I hope you got pictures. I plan to put the ones I took up on my TR. Oh...and your tree. I have it. I just need to box it up to send back to you. (I put it up at home too since my real tree was quite dead when I got home) Course, the tree couldn't stay up for long since my Kitty, grr seemed to think that she needed to have an epic battle with it.

Well I overpack and I like tape. You should know that by now! :lmao: Shelly has photos of the room decorations which I don't have because usually I forget to take pictures the first few days. Don't worry about the tree. If the lights were mine instead of Shelly's I would have pack those for you too, I didn't consider you packing the tree to come home with you! Jessie and Elise are having fun with the low hanging ornaments on our tree right now.

BTW: Target had all their Christmas stuff 70% off, so I picked up some micro lights for our next Christmas trip and all the Mickey Christmas plates and things were marked down too!!! :cheer2:

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

Oh. My. Goodness.

Alright, so I read that you said the park hours changed, and in my mind I completely forgot that I was reading your TR, and not your PTR, so I started pulling up the calendar all frantic, like I didn't notice the hours had changed! When did they change??? And it literally took me until I opened the page to comment to realize that you were talking about December. :headache:

I have officially been planning this trip for WAY too long! :rotfl:

Glad that your flight plans worked out well! Way to go with your prices!! :thumbsup2

[flamestarrdust]

Joining in! Saw you had a TR via Annmarie's TR so figured I'd check it out. Can't wait to read more!

[Nermel9]

Haha, I brought a ton of decorations that I didn't end up using, so between the 2 of us, we could have decorated all of Pop! :rotfl:

I still can't believe I walked by your door and didn't write you a message! Ughhh!!! :laughing:

[tankgirl427]

Oh. My. Goodness.

Alright, so I read that you said the park hours changed, and in my mind I completely forgot that I was reading your TR, and not your PTR, so I started pulling up the calendar all frantic, like I didn't notice the hours had changed! When did they change??? And it literally took me until I opened the page to comment to realize that you were talking about December. :headache:

I have officially been planning this trip for WAY too long! :rotfl:

Glad that your flight plans worked out well! Way to go with your prices!! :thumbsup2

LOL Sara, I would have done the same thing. Not confusing enough that I have three reports going on at the same time. We already went over the changes in January, they better not change again! We were really trying to make the trip a budget trip since it was so quick and I needed to save money for January still.

Joining in! Saw you had a TR via Annmarie's TR so figured I'd check it out. Can't wait to read more!

Welcome!

Haha, I brought a ton of decorations that I didn't end up using, so between the 2 of us, we could have decorated all of Pop! :rotfl:

I still can't believe I walked by your door and didn't write you a message! Ughhh!!! :laughing:

We could have at least full decorated every window in our building! We kept noticing a room in Building 3 with a ton of decorations when we went for the elevator, but we never went anywhere but our room while there. That's awesome that you at least know you walked by my room. I'm sure we'll run into each other on another trip with our APs!

[tankgirl427]

The week before we were scheduled to leave I told my boss that our flight had been changed from leaving at 6:30pm to 4:40pm. It was sort of true, minus the part that we cancelled our 6:30pm flight when it was no longer a non-stop. I asked to come into work early so I could leave at 3pm to go to the airport.

Can I just say I have the best BF in the world when I'm not bringing him to Disney with me? :lmao: I was trying to work from 7am - 3pm with no break for lunch and I asked him to only work the morning shift which is from 9am -3pm so he could drive me to the airport. Not only did I get him to agree to that, I got him to agree to drive me to be at work at 7am so I didn't have to leave my car there.:rotfl2:

We woke up Friday morning around 5:30 - 6am and drove to my worksite (which is very close to his jobsite), we got there by 7am and I invited him to come in and hang out before he left for work. At 8am he left for work and I was trying very hard to focus and get to 3pm. I spent a lot of time on DIS, I reread Ann's PTR to see when she was planning to get up and when her flight was and her layover and converting it to Eastern time to see when I can start texting her because I was so excited! Needless to say, I probably should have taken the day off, because I wasn't much help to anyone. Plus, I was getting texts from Shelly about when I was leave, that she was at the airport, security was a breeze. I wanted to be there too!

I was getting a little nervous because right before 3pm, my boss asked me for help regarding something and I saw BF pull into the parking lot for me. I was trying to explain to my boss, while getting calls and texts from BF that he was here. By 3:05pm, he realized I was supposed to go to the airport and I ran out of there! I promised I would bring him back some good chocolate in England and ran out and into BF's car. By 3:30pm I was in the airport, luggage checked, and in the security line. I took the rule of thumb, most people go to the right, so I went left. Wrong choice! It took me about 15 minutes to get through security and I always walked all the way through after the body scanner, that would have been interesting! Grabbed my bags, shoved my feet in my shoes and took off to find Shelly. Once again, luck was not on my side as I got stuck behind the slowest moving people who decided to take up the whole hallway and pay no attention to the fact there were people trying to get around them. I got to the gate found Shelly, we compared our Disney carryon bags and settled in for all of 20 minutes before we started boarding.

We had picked seats in Row 20, because I knew that after people with Extra Space, families, and people who needed more time for boarding, we'd be the first group on so we'd have great overhead bin availability. The flight was full, and it was sort of annoying cause a family a few rows ahead of us put their bags in the overhead and then closed the bin so no one else would go in it. Not to mention they had ribbons tied to their bag that were hanging out, but that's all stuff that didn't affect me. This plane only had two seats on each side, so Shelly took the window and I had the aisle. We took off fine and on time and I slept for a little bit, we went over plans for high score on TSM, plans for MVMCP, and the hours for the Holiday storytellers.

The next thing I know, its time to start landing and its only about 7:45pm when we were supposed to land at 8. I use my phone to check on Ann's flight which says it on time for 9pm. We get off the plane, use the restroom,
and head to baggage claim, we didn't want to wait for ME to get us our bags since we wanted to have the decorations up ASAP since we only had three days. After reading Ann's story about getting her bags I'm glad we didn't do ME!

But I had to stop once we finished the walk towards the fake monorail and take a photo.

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m163/tankgirl427/December%202011/IMG_20111209_200021.jpg

I :love: Christmas trees and twinkly lights. We took the fake monorail over and I checked out the big board which said Ann's flight was arriving early at 8:45pm, this was only 45 minutes away and totally doable since we had to get our luggage and get something to eat before loading on the ME. We got our luggage with no problem and went up to the food court and had dinner at Chick-a-fil. We then went to the Earport to check out the Disney merch while killing time and waiting for it to be time for Ann and Zoe.

Up Next: Time to go to Disney!

[Monknmom]

How nice to just go on a trip with a friend! That is really great that you got to plan most things to coincide with Ann's family! They really are a nice family- I wish we spent a little more time!
Don't the bosses always do that? They "forget" about your leaving and have things to talk to you about right before hand? Oh my... at least you got there on time and arrived safe and sound!

[swwake]

We missed that tree somehow. I wish we had seen it. Maybe it wasn't in the terminal with Southwest?

Glad you got there without a hitch, especially with your boss forgetting that you needed to leave early!

[annmarieda]

I am so glad that you waited for Zoe and I! Thank you so much! I know it cut into your evening....kinda ruining your being able to hit a park that night.

What a great picture of the tree!

[KatMark]

Great update. It's so awesome that you waited at the airport for Ann and Zoe to arrive. You are a good friend!

[annmarieda]

Great update. It's so awesome that you waited at the airport for Ann and Zoe to arrive. You are a good friend!

AND... if you read on my TR you know how helpful it was to have her. I mean.. Zoe is a great kid and would have behaved... but it was so much nicer to have the extra eyes and hands to help.

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

How nice of you to wait for Ann and Zoe at MCO!!

It's funny, I'm always trying to take pictures of the tree or other whatnots at the airport, and DBF is always like "we're not at Disney yet! How is this picture-worthy???" :rotfl: Every part of the trip counts!

[Nermel9]

Glad you got out of work on time, I don't think I could go to work the day of a flight, I'd be too stressed! :scared1:

So you ended up flying down on Jet Blue? I don't understand their boarding process, they let the people on the back of the plane on first? We flew home with Jet blue in October, but I was distracted and barely remember getting on the plane (you'll see why at the end of my October TR! It's always something! :rotfl:).

Pretty trees at MCO, I'm glad they make the effort to decorate! :cool1:

[tankgirl427]

How nice to just go on a trip with a friend! That is really great that you got to plan most things to coincide with Ann's family! They really are a nice family- I wish we spent a little more time!
Don't the bosses always do that? They "forget" about your leaving and have things to talk to you about right before hand? Oh my... at least you got there on time and arrived safe and sound!

Going with another Disney obsessed person was just what the doctor ordered after October. We didn't even try to have everything end up the same, we were deciding between two weekends, the AP rate or free dining, and decided that weekend and then decided to add Monday so we could go to Sunday's party rather than adding Thursday and going to Friday's party. Did any of that make sense? I know! He didn't need anything all day and then of course the last fifteen minutes something has to happen!

We missed that tree somehow. I wish we had seen it. Maybe it wasn't in the terminal with Southwest?

Glad you got there without a hitch, especially with your boss forgetting that you needed to leave early!

Hi Susan, I'm not sure. Since Southwest was another terminal, I'd say ask Ann, but well.... not a lot of sleep and a long flight probably doesn't bode well. He only forgot for about 5 minutes so it wasn't that bad.

I am so glad that you waited for Zoe and I! Thank you so much! I know it cut into your evening....kinda ruining your being able to hit a park that night.

What a great picture of the tree!

I really really wanted to meet you two. Shelly could tell you how nervous I was about it. I figured it was my only chance in case we didn't meet up at the Christmas party. And you didn't ruin anything, that ME driver did! That wasn't even the big tree where we met you!

Great update. It's so awesome that you waited at the airport for Ann and Zoe to arrive. You are a good friend!

Between dinner and their landing we only had 20 minutes to kill and I was lucky that Shelly didn't mind waiting with me to meet them!

AND... if you read on my TR you know how helpful it was to have her. I mean.. Zoe is a great kid and would have behaved... but it was so much nicer to have the extra eyes and hands to help.

LOL I think it helped to have brains there with a bit more sleep than you got! Especially with the fight number and where you sat!

How nice of you to wait for Ann and Zoe at MCO!!

It's funny, I'm always trying to take pictures of the tree or other whatnots at the airport, and DBF is always like "we're not at Disney yet! How is this picture-worthy???" :rotfl: Every part of the trip counts!

It was a cool big tree and I had to stop cause it was my first big Christmas tree I saw, but it was not the biggest!

Glad you got out of work on time, I don't think I could go to work the day of a flight, I'd be too stressed! :scared1:

So you ended up flying down on Jet Blue? I don't understand their boarding process, they let the people on the back of the plane on first? We flew home with Jet blue in October, but I was distracted and barely remember getting on the plane (you'll see why at the end of my October TR! It's always something! :rotfl:).

Pretty trees at MCO, I'm glad they make the effort to decorate! :cool1:

I usually go to work before the trip, only so I'm not overly anxious waiting for the flight, but more so to save my vacation days for Disney right now. Yep we did Jet Blue down. It easier to board from back to front, because then you don't' have back of the plane people trying to fight through all the front of the plane people to get to their seats. And you get to see what the tree looks like all lit up!

[tankgirl427]

After wandering around earport, I got all sorts of anxious, what if they plane already landed and they deboarded and a bunch of other things. So I went over to the big board of all flights to check and decided to wait at the big HUGE tree right there and figure out which side of security their monorail would let out. Shelly was cool with waiting with me and obsessing over every group of people that let out. I knew what Ann and Zoe looked like, but I wasn't sure how tall they would be, so we just kept looking for a mom and daughter with a pink backpack. :lmao: At least I knew what the backpack would look like! Eventually I saw Ann and Zoe and I called out to Zoe and waved. They came over and Zoe handed me a reusable Mickey Christmas bag and inside was two boxes of chocolates and a patchwork Mickey Mouse ears. Inside, I was going :rotfl2: I was going to get them good with all the little surprises I had packed away for them. And I was really glad I had become friends with them. Ann and I started talking about her flight and as we passed earport which was now closed Zoe ran over to Goofy looked up at him and did her own version of his poise. Ann asked if she wanted her photo taken and both Ann and Shelly took photos of Zoe and her poise. We headed down to ME, where by the time we got to ME, Zoe had warmed up to us and became a little chatterbox. We loaded onto the ugly yellow Mears bus and headed off. Zoe jumped on and picked a row for her and Ann, there were no seats near them so we took seats a couple rows ahead of them.

As we slowly left the airport, Ann texted me that she just remembered she left Zoe's medicine on the plane. After that freak out, I got to enjoy the conversation of the guy in the Disney Christmas sweater talking like he knew everything Disney and the girls in the front row behind the driver talking about some France trip and the wineries and some other stuff very loudly. Shelly and I waited for the video to come on, which never did. After stopping at either the Beach Club or Yacht Club, Mr. Disney Sweater got off the bus and I asked Ann if they wanted to move up and sit next to us. I passed my phone over to her so she could read all the messages people left for her on her PTR and mine. We had a laugh over the fact that people were messaging me asking about Ann. Next we pulled up to the CBR, and finally Pop. This bus driver was the slowest one I've ever had! We probably got on the bus around 9 and didn't get to Pop until after 10pm. During this ride, Shelly and I had a lot of time to talk and realize, by the time we check in, drop off our bags and head out, Epcot would be closing so it would be better to spend the time decorating the room and get a good night's sleep.

Ann and I went up to check in together and had one of the best check in people there. We were in the same building and same floor, but Ann was was one room around one corner and we were three rooms down the other corner. I know that sounds confusing, but it took all of two minutes to walk between our rooms. Then Ann had our check in lady call Southwest to see about the medicine, while this was going on Shelly went to sit with Zoe who was starting to color on the bench. While trying to deal with the incompetent Southwest people on the phone while trying to stay in the Disney mode (it was hard to watch since they were being no help and saying it could take at least three days before it may show up if they even found it) Zoe had to run to the bathroom and Shelly took her. After we got pretty much nowhere with Southwest and got everything else settled down, we went to where Zoe left all her things for the bathroom run. A lady came up to us and asked if one of us were Zoe's mom and that Zoe said her mom was wearing a pink shirt which was me, but whatever we were together. We collected all the luggage and headed for the bathroom, where I hung outside while Ann fixed whatever Zoe needed quickly and everyone came out of the bathroom and we headed out of Century Hall and headed towards Building 1. There was a fence around Lady and Zoe was excited to be in the pink building and we had Zoe drive us to the fourth floor.

We separated here to settle into our rooms. Shelly and I went straight to work on decorating the window, while Ann and Zoe did whatever they did. Our checked luggage had all the decorations, and in my case it only had decorations and some surprises for Ann and Zoe. I packed Ann's gifts in a Tinkerbell bag and I had two Princess bags to choose from for Zoe, one was purple and pink and the other was all pink. I asked Shelly which one I should give Zoe, I got this look from Shelly and she said well Zoe is very pink. :lmao: I quickly packed the bags up and put them aside. Shelly got to work on the lights, while I started on the tree, then I put some window clings on the window while Shelly brought out an assortment of Christmas Disney plushes to decorate our window with and then I texted Ann and Zoe to see what they were doing and if they wanted to visit. They came over, saw the window and I gave them their gifts. Zoe then brought us over to their room so we could see their one decoration. At this time Zoe opened one gift and Ann did too,and Zoe decided that they would open one gift a day. Which only lasted, from what I understand, one day. LOL!

We then headed down to Century Hall to check out the shopping, we found an easier path to Century Hall, which lets you out right where the Luggage Assistance. Once in Century Hall, Zoe ran over to the Christmas tree, plopped herself in the chair and once again poised for the cameras. We looked around Everything Pop for a bit, before Ann and Zoe got hungry. When Shelly and I were done looked Everything Pop was closed so we exited through the food court, just as Ann an Zoe were heading towards us with a tray. We took a table and sat, while Ann and Zoe split a Ham and Cheese (?) and Zoe had a hot chocolate, then we exited by the pool and went up front to wait for Alex and Steve who were on an icky bus. Zoe and I played with climbing in the 0's of whatever year we could get her in and then went back to waiting. Eventually another ugly yellow Mears bus came and Steve and Alex basically ran off of it. Zoe ran up to Alex and we tried to separate from them and give them some family time, but we all ended up on the same elevator. :rotfl:

We headed to bed around 1am. Shelly went out before bed to grab a diet coke and ran into Zoe in the halls. Tomorrow we have plans to head to HS -> AK -> HS -> MK! Would we get it all done?

Up Next: Day 1 - 12/10

[swwake]

Well that was an eventful and fun arrival day. Y'all got so much done! Such a sweet friend to bring gifts for Zoe and Ann.

I can't believe you're going to do 3 parks 4 times tomorrow!

[KatMark]

Glad you were able to get the decorating done, etc., and found a shorter route to Century Hall.

3 parks in one day? :eek:

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

Sounds like you guys had a busy arrival day!! That's fun that you were able to spend time at the resort your first evening, putting up your decorations and giving gifts!

Your plan for the next day definitely sounds ambitious!

[DisneyKira]

I'm here! popcorn::

[lilpixiebabe101]

:rotfl: "I overpacked my suitcase for three days and enough decorations to decorate most of Pop"

Yes, yes you did... but it was AMAZING! I hope you got pictures. I plan to put the ones I took up on my TR. Oh...and your tree. I have it. I just need to box it up to send back to you. (I put it up at home too since my real tree was quite dead when I got home) Course, the tree couldn't stay up for long since my Kitty, grr seemed to think that she needed to have an epic battle with it.

My coworkers cats tried to climb at the same time to the top of hers and ended up knocking the whole thing over.. these are like 6-7 year old cats.. never fooled with the tree before... broke all her ornaments.

The week before we were scheduled to leave I told my boss that our flight had been changed from leaving at 6:30pm to 4:40pm. It was sort of true, minus the part that we cancelled our 6:30pm flight when it was no longer a non-stop. I asked to come into work early so I could leave at 3pm to go to the airport.

Can I just say I have the best BF in the world when I'm not bringing him to Disney with me? :lmao: I was trying to work from 7am - 3pm with no break for lunch and I asked him to only work the morning shift which is from 9am -3pm so he could drive me to the airport. Not only did I get him to agree to that, I got him to agree to drive me to be at work at 7am so I didn't have to leave my car there.:rotfl2:

We woke up Friday morning around 5:30 - 6am and drove to my worksite (which is very close to his jobsite), we got there by 7am and I invited him to come in and hang out before he left for work. At 8am he left for work and I was trying very hard to focus and get to 3pm. I spent a lot of time on DIS, I reread Ann's PTR to see when she was planning to get up and when her flight was and her layover and converting it to Eastern time to see when I can start texting her because I was so excited! Needless to say, I probably should have taken the day off, because I wasn't much help to anyone. Plus, I was getting texts from Shelly about when I was leave, that she was at the airport, security was a breeze. I wanted to be there too!

I was getting a little nervous because right before 3pm, my boss asked me for help regarding something and I saw BF pull into the parking lot for me. I was trying to explain to my boss, while getting calls and texts from BF that he was here. By 3:05pm, he realized I was supposed to go to the airport and I ran out of there! I promised I would bring him back some good chocolate in England and ran out and into BF's car. By 3:30pm I was in the airport, luggage checked, and in the security line. I took the rule of thumb, most people go to the right, so I went left. Wrong choice! It took me about 15 minutes to get through security and I always walked all the way through after the body scanner, that would have been interesting! Grabbed my bags, shoved my feet in my shoes and took off to find Shelly. Once again, luck was not on my side as I got stuck behind the slowest moving people who decided to take up the whole hallway and pay no attention to the fact there were people trying to get around them. I got to the gate found Shelly, we compared our Disney carryon bags and settled in for all of 20 minutes before we started boarding.

We had picked seats in Row 20, because I knew that after people with Extra Space, families, and people who needed more time for boarding, we'd be the first group on so we'd have great overhead bin availability. The flight was full, and it was sort of annoying cause a family a few rows ahead of us put their bags in the overhead and then closed the bin so no one else would go in it. Not to mention they had ribbons tied to their bag that were hanging out, but that's all stuff that didn't affect me. This plane only had two seats on each side, so Shelly took the window and I had the aisle. We took off fine and on time and I slept for a little bit, we went over plans for high score on TSM, plans for MVMCP, and the hours for the Holiday storytellers.

The next thing I know, its time to start landing and its only about 7:45pm when we were supposed to land at 8. I use my phone to check on Ann's flight which says it on time for 9pm. We get off the plane, use the restroom,
and head to baggage claim, we didn't want to wait for ME to get us our bags since we wanted to have the decorations up ASAP since we only had three days. After reading Ann's story about getting her bags I'm glad we didn't do ME!

But I had to stop once we finished the walk towards the fake monorail and take a photo.

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m163/tankgirl427/December%202011/IMG_20111209_200021.jpg

I :love: Christmas trees and twinkly lights. We took the fake monorail over and I checked out the big board which said Ann's flight was arriving early at 8:45pm, this was only 45 minutes away and totally doable since we had to get our luggage and get something to eat before loading on the ME. We got our luggage with no problem and went up to the food court and had dinner at Chick-a-fil. We then went to the Earport to check out the Disney merch while killing time and waiting for it to be time for Ann and Zoe.

Up Next: Time to go to Disney!

My boss kept asking me questions and stuff before I left too. And then I told him I needed to go look for a few last minute gifts for my mom for christmas since we were so slow at work. He agrees I get back like 5 mins before I'm suppose to leave and my relief was already there.. Apparently they had planned it so I can leave like 30 mins early..... I was like "really? and you let me walk off without telling me? the shopping could have waited till I got home 2 days before Christmas!"

How nice to just go on a trip with a friend! That is really great that you got to plan most things to coincide with Ann's family! They really are a nice family- I wish we spent a little more time!
Don't the bosses always do that? They "forget" about your leaving and have things to talk to you about right before hand? Oh my... at least you got there on time and arrived safe and sound!

I know! I've never brought a friend to Disney. Trips yes, Disney no. My brother got to bring one on their last trip, and he honestly said it felt weird. But being 16 years old, he said he felt like he couldnt really enjoy stuff he normally would have without the friend there. Not knowing how the friend would react to everything.

I am so glad that you waited for Zoe and I! Thank you so much! I know it cut into your evening....kinda ruining your being able to hit a park that night.

What a great picture of the tree!

Betsy, she says that like she was twisting your arm into waiting for them!

After wandering around earport, I got all sorts of anxious, what if they plane already landed and they deboarded and a bunch of other things. So I went over to the big board of all flights to check and decided to wait at the big HUGE tree right there and figure out which side of security their monorail would let out. Shelly was cool with waiting with me and obsessing over every group of people that let out. I knew what Ann and Zoe looked like, but I wasn't sure how tall they would be, so we just kept looking for a mom and daughter with a pink backpack. :lmao: At least I knew what the backpack would look like! Eventually I saw Ann and Zoe and I called out to Zoe and waved. They came over and Zoe handed me a reusable Mickey Christmas bag and inside was two boxes of chocolates and a patchwork Mickey Mouse ears. Inside, I was going :rotfl2: I was going to get them good with all the little surprises I had packed away for them. And I was really glad I had become friends with them. Ann and I started talking about her flight and as we passed earport which was now closed Zoe ran over to Goofy looked up at him and did her own version of his poise. Ann asked if she wanted her photo taken and both Ann and Shelly took photos of Zoe and her poise. We headed down to ME, where by the time we got to ME, Zoe had warmed up to us and became a little chatterbox. We loaded onto the ugly yellow Mears bus and headed off. Zoe jumped on and picked a row for her and Ann, there were no seats near them so we took seats a couple rows ahead of them.

As we slowly left the airport, Ann texted me that she just remembered she left Zoe's medicine on the plane. After that freak out, I got to enjoy the conversation of the guy in the Disney Christmas sweater talking like he knew everything Disney and the girls in the front row behind the driver talking about some France trip and the wineries and some other stuff very loudly. Shelly and I waited for the video to come on, which never did. After stopping at either the Beach Club or Yacht Club, Mr. Disney Sweater got off the bus and I asked Ann if they wanted to move up and sit next to us. I passed my phone over to her so she could read all the messages people left for her on her PTR and mine. We had a laugh over the fact that people were messaging me asking about Ann. Next we pulled up to the CBR, and finally Pop. This bus driver was the slowest one I've ever had! We probably got on the bus around 9 and didn't get to Pop until after 10pm. During this ride, Shelly and I had a lot of time to talk and realize, by the time we check in, drop off our bags and head out, Epcot would be closing so it would be better to spend the time decorating the room and get a good night's sleep.

Ann and I went up to check in together and had one of the best check in people there. We were in the same building and same floor, but Ann was was one room around one corner and we were three rooms down the other corner. I know that sounds confusing, but it took all of two minutes to walk between our rooms. Then Ann had our check in lady call Southwest to see about the medicine, while this was going on Shelly went to sit with Zoe who was starting to color on the bench. While trying to deal with the incompetent Southwest people on the phone while trying to stay in the Disney mode (it was hard to watch since they were being no help and saying it could take at least three days before it may show up if they even found it) Zoe had to run to the bathroom and Shelly took her. After we got pretty much nowhere with Southwest and got everything else settled down, we went to where Zoe left all her things for the bathroom run. A lady came up to us and asked if one of us were Zoe's mom and that Zoe said her mom was wearing a pink shirt which was me, but whatever we were together. We collected all the luggage and headed for the bathroom, where I hung outside while Ann fixed whatever Zoe needed quickly and everyone came out of the bathroom and we headed out of Century Hall and headed towards Building 1. There was a fence around Lady and Zoe was excited to be in the pink building and we had Zoe drive us to the fourth floor.

We separated here to settle into our rooms. Shelly and I went straight to work on decorating the window, while Ann and Zoe did whatever they did. Our checked luggage had all the decorations, and in my case it only had decorations and some surprises for Ann and Zoe. I packed Ann's gifts in a Tinkerbell bag and I had two Princess bags to choose from for Zoe, one was purple and pink and the other was all pink. I asked Shelly which one I should give Zoe, I got this look from Shelly and she said well Zoe is very pink. :lmao: I quickly packed the bags up and put them aside. Shelly got to work on the lights, while I started on the tree, then I put some window clings on the window while Shelly brought out an assortment of Christmas Disney plushes to decorate our window with and then I texted Ann and Zoe to see what they were doing and if they wanted to visit. They came over, saw the window and I gave them their gifts. Zoe then brought us over to their room so we could see their one decoration. At this time Zoe opened one gift and Ann did too,and Zoe decided that they would open one gift a day. Which only lasted, from what I understand, one day. LOL!

We then headed down to Century Hall to check out the shopping, we found an easier path to Century Hall, which lets you out right where the Luggage Assistance. Once in Century Hall, Zoe ran over to the Christmas tree, plopped herself in the chair and once again poised for the cameras. We looked around Everything Pop for a bit, before Ann and Zoe got hungry. When Shelly and I were done looked Everything Pop was closed so we exited through the food court, just as Ann an Zoe were heading towards us with a tray. We took a table and sat, while Ann and Zoe split a Ham and Cheese (?) and Zoe had a hot chocolate, then we exited by the pool and went up front to wait for Alex and Steve who were on an icky bus. Zoe and I played with climbing in the 0's of whatever year we could get her in and then went back to waiting. Eventually another ugly yellow Mears bus came and Steve and Alex basically ran off of it. Zoe ran up to Alex and we tried to separate from them and give them some family time, but we all ended up on the same elevator. :rotfl:

We headed to bed around 1am. Shelly went out before bed to grab a diet coke and ran into Zoe in the halls. Tomorrow we have plans to head to HS -> AK -> HS -> MK! Would we get it all done?

Up Next: Day 1 - 12/10

Geez a lot happened in a small span of hours. That's so awesome y'all ended up so close to each others rooms.

Now I know we have done Disney a bit commando.. but that's a bit extreme even for us! I think our most extreme day was probably a EP -> TL (Typhoon LAgoon) -> All Star -> HoB to eat -> DisneyQuest -> MK EMH

[tankgirl427]

Well that was an eventful and fun arrival day. Y'all got so much done! Such a sweet friend to bring gifts for Zoe and Ann.

I can't believe you're going to do 3 parks 4 times tomorrow!

LOL, I've done it before, it just depends on the order of the parks and how early/late you can go.

Glad you were able to get the decorating done, etc., and found a shorter route to Century Hall.

3 parks in one day? :eek:

Shelly has managed all 4 in one day, that is a feat that still eludes me.

Sounds like you guys had a busy arrival day!! That's fun that you were able to spend time at the resort your first evening, putting up your decorations and giving gifts!

Your plan for the next day definitely sounds ambitious!

It was much more relaxing and less stressful than trying to run out to Epcot to catch the end of EMHs.

I'm here! popcorn::

KIRA! You made it! :yay:


My boss kept asking me questions and stuff before I left too. And then I told him I needed to go look for a few last minute gifts for my mom for christmas since we were so slow at work. He agrees I get back like 5 mins before I'm suppose to leave and my relief was already there.. Apparently they had planned it so I can leave like 30 mins early..... I was like "really? and you let me walk off without telling me? the shopping could have waited till I got home 2 days before Christmas!"

I know! I've never brought a friend to Disney. Trips yes, Disney no. My brother got to bring one on their last trip, and he honestly said it felt weird. But being 16 years old, he said he felt like he couldnt really enjoy stuff he normally would have without the friend there. Not knowing how the friend would react to everything.

Betsy, she says that like she was twisting your arm into waiting for them!

Geez a lot happened in a small span of hours. That's so awesome y'all ended up so close to each others rooms.

Now I know we have done Disney a bit commando.. but that's a bit extreme even for us! I think our most extreme day was probably a EP -> TL (Typhoon LAgoon) -> All Star -> HoB to eat -> DisneyQuest -> MK EMH

It's it awesome when people forget to tell us things that would have totally affected our days and what we would have done? It also depends on whether the friend feels the same way about Disney as you do. I lucked out with that one. It was torture having to sit in MCO waiting for Ann and Zoe. :lmao: I wouldn't have done it if I didn't want to, plus I wanted to meet her in person since she was key in me keeping my calm most of October. It was really nice being so close, since Ann couldn't call Pop and put the same request because Zoe wasn't doing well right before the trip. You'll find out what happened on our first day soon!

[annmarieda]

After wandering around earport, I got all sorts of anxious, what if they plane already landed and they deboarded and a bunch of other things. So I went over to the big board of all flights to check and decided to wait at the big HUGE tree right there and figure out which side of security their monorail would let out. Shelly was cool with waiting with me and obsessing over every group of people that let out. I knew what Ann and Zoe looked like, but I wasn't sure how tall they would be, so we just kept looking for a mom and daughter with a pink backpack. :lmao: At least I knew what the backpack would look like! Eventually I saw Ann and Zoe and I called out to Zoe and waved. They came over and Zoe handed me a reusable Mickey Christmas bag and inside was two boxes of chocolates and a patchwork Mickey Mouse ears. Inside, I was going :rotfl2: I was going to get them good with all the little surprises I had packed away for them. And I was really glad I had become friends with them. Ann and I started talking about her flight and as we passed earport which was now closed Zoe ran over to Goofy looked up at him and did her own version of his poise. Ann asked if she wanted her photo taken and both Ann and Shelly took photos of Zoe and her poise. We headed down to ME, where by the time we got to ME, Zoe had warmed up to us and became a little chatterbox. We loaded onto the ugly yellow Mears bus and headed off. Zoe jumped on and picked a row for her and Ann, there were no seats near them so we took seats a couple rows ahead of them.

As we slowly left the airport, Ann texted me that she just remembered she left Zoe's medicine on the plane. After that freak out, I got to enjoy the conversation of the guy in the Disney Christmas sweater talking like he knew everything Disney and the girls in the front row behind the driver talking about some France trip and the wineries and some other stuff very loudly. Shelly and I waited for the video to come on, which never did. After stopping at either the Beach Club or Yacht Club, Mr. Disney Sweater got off the bus and I asked Ann if they wanted to move up and sit next to us. I passed my phone over to her so she could read all the messages people left for her on her PTR and mine. We had a laugh over the fact that people were messaging me asking about Ann. Next we pulled up to the CBR, and finally Pop. This bus driver was the slowest one I've ever had! We probably got on the bus around 9 and didn't get to Pop until after 10pm. During this ride, Shelly and I had a lot of time to talk and realize, by the time we check in, drop off our bags and head out, Epcot would be closing so it would be better to spend the time decorating the room and get a good night's sleep.

Ann and I went up to check in together and had one of the best check in people there. We were in the same building and same floor, but Ann was was one room around one corner and we were three rooms down the other corner. I know that sounds confusing, but it took all of two minutes to walk between our rooms. Then Ann had our check in lady call Southwest to see about the medicine, while this was going on Shelly went to sit with Zoe who was starting to color on the bench. While trying to deal with the incompetent Southwest people on the phone while trying to stay in the Disney mode (it was hard to watch since they were being no help and saying it could take at least three days before it may show up if they even found it) Zoe had to run to the bathroom and Shelly took her. After we got pretty much nowhere with Southwest and got everything else settled down, we went to where Zoe left all her things for the bathroom run. A lady came up to us and asked if one of us were Zoe's mom and that Zoe said her mom was wearing a pink shirt which was me, but whatever we were together. We collected all the luggage and headed for the bathroom, where I hung outside while Ann fixed whatever Zoe needed quickly and everyone came out of the bathroom and we headed out of Century Hall and headed towards Building 1. There was a fence around Lady and Zoe was excited to be in the pink building and we had Zoe drive us to the fourth floor.

We separated here to settle into our rooms. Shelly and I went straight to work on decorating the window, while Ann and Zoe did whatever they did. Our checked luggage had all the decorations, and in my case it only had decorations and some surprises for Ann and Zoe. I packed Ann's gifts in a Tinkerbell bag and I had two Princess bags to choose from for Zoe, one was purple and pink and the other was all pink. I asked Shelly which one I should give Zoe, I got this look from Shelly and she said well Zoe is very pink. :lmao: I quickly packed the bags up and put them aside. Shelly got to work on the lights, while I started on the tree, then I put some window clings on the window while Shelly brought out an assortment of Christmas Disney plushes to decorate our window with and then I texted Ann and Zoe to see what they were doing and if they wanted to visit. They came over, saw the window and I gave them their gifts. Zoe then brought us over to their room so we could see their one decoration. At this time Zoe opened one gift and Ann did too,and Zoe decided that they would open one gift a day. Which only lasted, from what I understand, one day. LOL!

We then headed down to Century Hall to check out the shopping, we found an easier path to Century Hall, which lets you out right where the Luggage Assistance. Once in Century Hall, Zoe ran over to the Christmas tree, plopped herself in the chair and once again poised for the cameras. We looked around Everything Pop for a bit, before Ann and Zoe got hungry. When Shelly and I were done looked Everything Pop was closed so we exited through the food court, just as Ann an Zoe were heading towards us with a tray. We took a table and sat, while Ann and Zoe split a Ham and Cheese (?) and Zoe had a hot chocolate, then we exited by the pool and went up front to wait for Alex and Steve who were on an icky bus. Zoe and I played with climbing in the 0's of whatever year we could get her in and then went back to waiting. Eventually another ugly yellow Mears bus came and Steve and Alex basically ran off of it. Zoe ran up to Alex and we tried to separate from them and give them some family time, but we all ended up on the same elevator. :rotfl:

We headed to bed around 1am. Shelly went out before bed to grab a diet coke and ran into Zoe in the halls. Tomorrow we have plans to head to HS -> AK -> HS -> MK! Would we get it all done?

Up Next: Day 1 - 12/10


For the life of me I could not remember when we took the picture of Zoe in front of the Pop Christmas tree. I am glad you remembered. :rotfl:

I also didn't know Zoe ran into Shelly. Was she with Alex? Again, I think I was pretty tired and I remember so little from the rest of that night.

And the sandwich...:rotfl: cant remember what it was. I thought turkey..but now that you mention ham...it probably was.

[tankgirl427]

For the life of me I could not remember when we took the picture of Zoe in front of the Pop Christmas tree. I am glad you remembered. :rotfl:

I also didn't know Zoe ran into Shelly. Was she with Alex? Again, I think I was pretty tired and I remember so little from the rest of that night.

And the sandwich...:rotfl: cant remember what it was. I thought turkey..but now that you mention ham...it probably was.

Yeah, I didn't remember really either, but I thought we did it before finding our rooms, but that didn't quite make sense going from the bathroom to the tree then to the room. I'm guessing if you looking at what time you took the photo it's close to 11pm.

I didn't know either. Shelly came into the room with her diet coke and told me she ran into Zoe in the hallway. :rotfl: What a little monkey she is!

I remember there was lettuce on it, but I don't eat cold cuts so I guessed ham and cheese. Zoe might remember. I realized I could have gotten you 20% off with my TIW card ( i realized this on my last day) :sad2: One day I will learn!

[tankgirl427]

We went to bed at 1am and had our alarm go off at 6:30am for us to get ready and head off to HS for EMHs. We arrived at HS at 7:30am. I had to stop to take a photo of the tree.

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m163/tankgirl427/December%202011/IMG_20111210_073055.jpg

Shelly went to renew her AP at Guest Services and I headed towards the ticket booth to pick up our MVMCP tickets. We entered into the park before 8am and walked through the stores on the left to admire things to buy while trying to avoid to the TSM Dash. Once the rope was dropped we worked our way to TSM and took advantage of Shelly's GAC and walked into the FP line. From there we went to Writer's Stop for some breakfast.

Mine:
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m163/tankgirl427/December%202011/DSCN3293.jpg

I guess I forgot to take a photo of Shelly's. She got a Diet coke and a pastry.

We then went on Star Tours. Then met with Buzz and Woody as soon as they opened. From there we got in line for Phineas and Ferb.

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m163/tankgirl427/December%202011/IMG_20111210_093725.jpg

:love: The Santa hats.

Then we went on another ride on Star Tours, where I picked up the hat in my photo. We then met with Mike and Sully, hit up another round of TSM. We checked out the stuff in One Man's Dream, with skipping the video and went to the Animation Building where we met with Mickey, Pooh, and Mr. & Mrs. Incredible. At this point we were starting to get hungry.

Our plan was to either get food in HS or AK, since we wanted to see the parade in AK. But we decided to head to DTD to get our shopping done and get some food at EOS. We took a bus to Saratoga Springs. Man that place is big! Eventually we got off the bus and walked half way around to the Main Hall, where I stopped in the shop to trade for Princess Leia vinyl! Yes! One more down to have them all! Eventually we found the boat dock and had to wait only a couple minutes for a boat. We got off at West Side and walked over to EOS, which was packed! The line wrapped around the queue and back and down into the store attached to it. We quickly decided against it and headed over to WPE.

Yum! I've been dreaming of their bacon wrapped meatloaf since last time. We asked at the counter if there were any discounts for AP holders or AAA members and there was! 10% off! We ordered settled in for some yummy yummy food and had a waiter who said he would take care of us, but he never showed up for refills or anything. Seriously we look for him from when our food was delivered until we were done and we never saw him!

On to the food!

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m163/tankgirl427/December%202011/DSCN3296.jpg

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m163/tankgirl427/December%202011/DSCN3297.jpg

After lunch we headed to WoD for some fast paced retail therapy. Seriously we were in and out in probably 20 minutes with all our purchases being delivered to Pop the following day. It was about 2pm now, we needed to make our way over to AK to see the Jingle Jammin' Parade.

Up Next: Day 1 - 12/10 Afternoon

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

I love the P&F santa hats!!! :santa:

Your meal at WPC looks awesome! I really should eat there someday (I just always forget about going there!)

[DisneyKira]

Mmmm...WPE. And how cute are those P&F hats?

[Nermel9]

Writer's Stop is my new favorite breakfast place in DHS! I love that it's still pretty unknown, it never seems to be crowded in there! :cool1:

Those Santa hats on P & F are really cute! I don't really watch that show, but I like the extra little Christmas touches!

Mmmm, WPE sounds so good, we never go there, I don't know why! Maybe on our next trip!

[swwake]

Fun update! It's nice that you got to do TSM without all the broo-ha-ha (sp?).

I was wondering if you would do animation academy. I guess not this time. :(

Too bad EOS was such a long wait! But you might have gotten the better end of the deal with that yummy food from WPE!

[annmarieda]

Oh my you were off early! And here I was thinking getting up at 8:30 was bad. :rolleyes: I wonder what time you were in DTD. We were there by about 12:30...

We must have had the same waiter at WGPE. NEVER showed to give us refills. We had to hunt someone down for a box. Needless to say... I forgot :rolleyes1 to tip.

[tankgirl427]

I love the P&F santa hats!!! :santa:

Your meal at WPC looks awesome! I really should eat there someday (I just always forget about going there!)

Best use of a QS meal credit if you ever don't go Deluxe!

Mmmm...WPE. And how cute are those P&F hats?

Mmmmm so good! I love that I can save 10% automatically cause I'm a passholder. No DDP required I'm saving everywhere! I was very happy to see them decked out for the season. Shelly liked the music in their queue so much she bought their Christmas album.

Writer's Stop is my new favorite breakfast place in DHS! I love that it's still pretty unknown, it never seems to be crowded in there! :cool1:

Those Santa hats on P & F are really cute! I don't really watch that show, but I like the extra little Christmas touches!

Mmmm, WPE sounds so good, we never go there, I don't know why! Maybe on our next trip!

Its so nice to have a quiet place away from the craziness of the TSM dash! OMG! You have to do WPE, if not for nothing, you will get 10% off!

Fun update! It's nice that you got to do TSM without all the broo-ha-ha (sp?).

I was wondering if you would do animation academy. I guess not this time. :(

Too bad EOS was such a long wait! But you might have gotten the better end of the deal with that yummy food from WPE!

Yes sometimes its nice to have friends with GAC, I mean its not cool the things that happen to be able to get one, but its enjoyable to not worry about running for FPs. I think this trip I might take a stab at it! Yeah there is only one sandwich I get at EOS (not a fan of cold cuts), but they do have this delicious peanut butter creme filled brownie. So Yummers!

Oh my you were off early! And here I was thinking getting up at 8:30 was bad. :rolleyes: I wonder what time you were in DTD. We were there by about 12:30...

We must have had the same waiter at WGPE. NEVER showed to give us refills. We had to hunt someone down for a box. Needless to say... I forgot :rolleyes1 to tip.

HAA HAA HAA, you were still on Seattle time, so it was more like 5:30 to you! I know we left around 2pm. I can't tell you when we got there. Possibly. And since its a QS, you don't have to leave a tip for crappy service! We forgot :rolleyes1 to leave a tip too..

[tankgirl427]

So we exited WoD around 2pm and headed to the bus stop. We decided to try and take a bus that goes to a resort near AK so the bus ride wouldn't be long. Right as we got to the bus depot it started to pour, luckily it would stop and we dodged between the people trying to stay dry to get to the last pick up spot and wait. We only waited less than 5 minutes before the first bus near AK showed up. It was an AKL bus. I was excited since I"ll be going there in January (or in 36 hours when I'm on the plane :rotfl:). We got on the bus with very few people and we were off. Once at AKL we walked to the first bus station which was AK. While there for twenty or more minutes we saw 3 EP buses, 2 MK buses, 3 DTD buses, and by the time the 4th HS bus came around we said screw it, let's head back to HS, By this time it was getting close to 3:45 - 4pm and there was no way we were going to catch the parade

We walked back into HS and checked out the food choices along the Streets of America for the Osborne Lights. We positioned ourselves up against the rope to see the family turn the lights on

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We stayed where we were for the first song and I was like :eek: the whole time, so much to see and experience and take it. It was AMAZING! Remember how I mentioned I liked twinkly lights? Well there is a house by me that really does there house up almost to the extent of how the houses were on the street, but this was like a whole street of house done up like that!

Photos of the lights on:
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m163/tankgirl427/December%202011/DSCN3302.jpg

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m163/tankgirl427/December%202011/DSCN3303.jpg

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http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m163/tankgirl427/December%202011/DSCN3309.jpg

I'll put more photos in later, cause I took a few!

We then headed to get in line for a PP picture by the big tree in the middle. We then worked our way towards where the globe was and back out of the street, we then walked down toward where the canopy was and found out it was exit only, we kept walking down and found an entrance right by where it says the Osborne Family Festival of Dancing Lights, but decided to take a little break from the crowds and went on Star Tours again, hmmm maybe we did this twice? I think we did Star Tours four times this day.

We then went back into the lights and then worked our way to the canopy part, where we lined up for another PP photographer. From there we exited again and headed towards TSM for one more rematch. I lost every time, but it was always close! We then took a bus to the Contemporary where we walked over to MK.

On our walk over, I heard something in the bush and then saw a Disney animal control person with a cage and so I told her where I had last heard the sound. Once we got to MK it was about 8:45pm, we got a photo up at the front ( not sure I've seen this one in my PP account) and we entered until the train station,people were lined up for the MSEP. At the Town Square, both the princesses and Mickey were listed as 5 minute waits, we decided to start with the Princesses and the wait was more like 15. We had Aurora, Snow White, and Cinderella. We got out and walked over to the Mickey line and walked directly into the room with Mickey and Minnie! There was a family that was exiting as we entered and we had no wait. We were probably in there for at least 5 minutes and no one came during that entire time! It was like our own private VIP meet and greet. After our photos were taken I noticed that I heard a bird in the room and I asked Mickey about it and he showed me a magic trick! I felt pretty cool discovering something I never knew before. We walked out of the Town Square, feeling really cool and attempted to walk through the stores to get by, but it wasn't happening, instead we had to go backstage around Main Street and ended up by Tomorrowland Terrance I think? I was making jokes with the CMs about how excited I was to finally see parking lot world/ concrete world/ asphalt world and a couple laughed about it. It was then were I truly got to enjoy

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It was even better than I imagined! We moved to the right of the hub to watch the Magic, Memories, and You show. We didn't want to watch Wishes, so we tried to get out towards Liberty Square. I saw a lime green Mickey head on a backpack and I stopped, tapped the guy on the shoulder and asked if he DISed, he said yes and then turned around and didn't say another word. Ummm why then did you put a LGMH on your body if you don't want people to stop you?

Up Next: 12/10 - MK EMH

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

Oh how I love the Osborne Lights!! We're JUST missing them on this trip! :headache:

[swwake]

Your bus experience at AKL was our biggest (probably only) gripe about staying there. It seems we spent 2+ hours a day waiting for and riding buses to/from AKL. And it seems to be a common complaint. You'd think Disney would fix that.

Love Osborne Lights, though we missed the opening show.

I love the castle at Christmas. Can't get enough of it!

[lilpixiebabe101]

Always love the lights. They are the reason my mom wanted to go to Disney. That and the Country Bears Christmas Show... did anyone else notice it wasn't changed this year. I thought mom was going to cry right then and there!

That sucks about the guy with the LGMH! What a jerk!

[annmarieda]

Oh, I am so jealous! You got to see them turn the lights on! Dh was not at all into the lights so we didn't get to stay long. :sad2:

Your castle pics are beautiful!!! And how lucky you were to have the VIP meet and greet!!! :woohoo:

So sad that your next dismeet was a bummer :sad2:

[chunkymonkey]

You have no idea how jealous I am that you got to go on yet another trip in Dec and got to meet Ann!! You guys must have had so much fun. I am all caught up on both yours and Ann's TR so far and I am loving them! I love your title too. Sooo appropriate :lmao:

I have been MIA a bit because I have arm injuries that prevent me from typing a lot...but that doesn't stop me from reading!

Hope you had a happy new year!

Su-Lynn

[annmarieda]

You have no idea how jealous I am that you got to go on yet another trip in Dec and got to meet Ann!! You guys must have had so much fun. I am all caught up on both yours and Ann's TR so far and I am loving them! I love your title too. Sooo appropriate :lmao:

I have been MIA a bit because I have arm injuries that prevent me from typing a lot...but that doesn't stop me from reading!

Hope you had a happy new year!

Su-Lynn

:wave: It is good to hear from you and to know you are still reading. I am so sorry about your arm though. It sucks to not be able to type. Hopefully all else is going well. :goodvibes

[KatMark]

I'm sorry I missed the last two updates...I seem to be falling further and further behind on all of my threads.

I really hope one day I'll be able to go and see the Osborn lights...they just look spectacular.

[tankgirl427]

Oh how I love the Osborne Lights!! We're JUST missing them on this trip! :headache:

I can't wait to read about your trip. It was crazy how long the Christmas decorations were up for!

Your bus experience at AKL was our biggest (probably only) gripe about staying there. It seems we spent 2+ hours a day waiting for and riding buses to/from AKL. And it seems to be a common complaint. You'd think Disney would fix that.

Love Osborne Lights, though we missed the opening show.

I love the castle at Christmas. Can't get enough of it!

You'll have to wait for my January TR whenever that gets started to find out what I think about AKL. LOL. The Osborne Lights and the Castle lights were a big hit with me, now if only I could have seen the lighting ceremony I would feel complete, I guess I can YouTube it!

Always love the lights. They are the reason my mom wanted to go to Disney. That and the Country Bears Christmas Show... did anyone else notice it wasn't changed this year. I thought mom was going to cry right then and there!

That sucks about the guy with the LGMH! What a jerk!

Can you believe I still haven't seen the Country Bears? I mean this trip was super quick so we kept it with rides in between everything else we had planned and I thought oh 10 days in January, I'll have plenty of time to do things I've never done before. Not completely true! I was very confused by that since other people with LGMHs in past trips have been so super nice and wanting to talk.

Oh, I am so jealous! You got to see them turn the lights on! Dh was not at all into the lights so we didn't get to stay long. :sad2:

Your castle pics are beautiful!!! And how lucky you were to have the VIP meet and greet!!! :woohoo:

So sad that your next dismeet was a bummer :sad2:

Yes, but I still had time with you to look forward to. LOL

You have no idea how jealous I am that you got to go on yet another trip in Dec and got to meet Ann!! You guys must have had so much fun. I am all caught up on both yours and Ann's TR so far and I am loving them! I love your title too. Sooo appropriate :lmao:

I have been MIA a bit because I have arm injuries that prevent me from typing a lot...but that doesn't stop me from reading!

Hope you had a happy new year!

Su-Lynn

Hi Su-Lynn, Been missing having your awesome photos to see and hearing about your trips! You have no idea how enjoyable it was to hang out with Ann and Zoe, they were exactly if not better than I imagined them to be, which was almost the title, but well the title came from elsewhere. I hope you are feeling better!

:wave: It is good to hear from you and to know you are still reading. I am so sorry about your arm though. It sucks to not be able to type. Hopefully all else is going well. :goodvibes

Ditto what Ann said Su-Lynn

I'm sorry I missed the last two updates...I seem to be falling further and further behind on all of my threads.

I really hope one day I'll be able to go and see the Osborn lights...they just look spectacular.

Don't worry Kathy you have a great trip to look forward to very soon and I have been bad keeping up while on vacation or even when I got home. I just finished my January notes now, so I could continue with December's TR instead of taking the Christmas tree down. :lmao:

[tankgirl427]

Sorry for so long between updates, but I had a trip to go on. :lmao:

When I last left you we had that unfortunate run in with Mr. LGMH backpack guy. We walked through Liberty Square and headed to BTMRR where we asked for the Back Row (my favorite spot for this ride) and while on the ride we get to catch some of Wishes going off while on the ride. We got off and jumped right back onto BTMRR in the back again. Afterwards we headed towards Adventureland where we met with Terrance and Tink. I let Shelly have the whole Meet and Greet and then sort of threw her under the bus with telling her to show Tink her Tink tattoo. :lmao: From there we went on the Haunted Mansion, the Tea Cups (which I doubt Shelly will ever go on with me again after how I spin them), the Peoplemover (so Shelly could stop spinning most likely), and then we hit up Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger spin twice. I think I won one and Shelly won the other, or she might have won both, but I didn't write that down and now everything is all blended together. After that we stopped at EVERY photopass photographer we saw walking out. I think I counted 12. :lmao: We did a little shopping and left MK at 1:15am. I think we got home and to bed around 2am.

Tomorrow was our Epcot/MVMCP day. I have photos to share with this day!

[tankgirl427]

Shelly and I got up probably just before 7am and were at Epcot for the opening at 9am. We headed straight for the Character Spot, then went on Soarin' and headed across to Test Track.

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Test Track was enjoyable and we did our best impersonation of the Home Alone face.

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Then Shelly did her best at trying to convince me to go on Mission Space Green and I was tempted and then got scared and chickened out before we even got over to the line.

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We then spent some time in Mouse Gears and headed over to tour the World Showcase and hopefully wander into some of the story tellers.

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In England, we stopped for some Fish & Chips (me) and a side of Chips (Shelly)

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We stopped in France to meet Belle and I picked a pearl in Japan. I believe I got a 7 1/4 mm white pearl. I stopped in the American Adventure to take a photo of the tree.

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We stopped in Germany to meet Snow White and while walking around the World Showcase we ran into a PP photographer, Tom, who was very enjoyable to talk to and gave us our own photo session. We finished our walk around the World Showcase and had to head back to Pop to pick up our packages from the previous day and a special guest before heading out to the MVMCP.

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As we were walking to the bus I asked Shelly if her camera was still out because Miss America was walking towards us. Well it wasn't Miss America but in fact Mrs. Germany, France, Italy, and a bunch of other Mrs contestants. They were very nice and said hi and waved and they were taping them walking into Epcot. We couldn't believe what we were seeing and Shelly got one quick photo of them as we kept walking and grabbed a bus to Pop, picked up our packages and headed back to our room only to walk out ten minutes later, because we had someone picking us up so we could go to MVMCP.

Up Next: MVMCP and more time with Ann and Zoe

[annmarieda]

You got so much done! I think had I known how much better the crowds would be at the beginning of the trip I might have not started our park touring later. Also...never had the food in England (well, had rose and crown once but didn't like it.) Your fish and chips look yummy!!!

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

That looks like a beautiful Epcot day!! I'm sorry that we weren't able to meet up during our January trips - I completely forgot to put your number into my phone! :headache:

[swwake]

I love the fish n chips from UK. Yum!
Can't wait to hear about MVMCP with Ann and Zoe!

[tankgirl427]

You got so much done! I think had I known how much better the crowds would be at the beginning of the trip I might have not started our park touring later. Also...never had the food in England (well, had rose and crown once but didn't like it.) Your fish and chips look yummy!!!

Oh its so good and its a regular staple I have to stop at if just for the fries!

That looks like a beautiful Epcot day!! I'm sorry that we weren't able to meet up during our January trips - I completely forgot to put your number into my phone! :headache:

It was really nice and warm and so made me happy it wasn't that super cold December from the year before. It would have been cool if we were in the same place at the same time. I did keep my eyes open for you, just in case your plans changed, but I didn't see any pink or grey converse or a Wingnut. :rotfl:

I love the fish n chips from UK. Yum!
Can't wait to hear about MVMCP with Ann and Zoe!

That will be coming up soon. I've been too busy at work to update from there and I didn't feel well yesterday.

[tankgirl427]

So I last left off with us being in the room with our things we shipped to Pop. I got a phone call from someone who was joining us for the night and Shelly and I left the room and went downstairs to find them......

Who was there to go to MVMCP with us?





























































































It was G!
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He actually bought a ticket to MVMCP to hang out with all of us for the night! :banana:

We jumped into his car and headed for the TTC with a few wrong turns. My phone's GPS wasn't up and running by the time we had to decide left or right leaving Pop and I guessed the wrong decision, a few minutes later we were parking here:

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We took the ferry over to MK, went in and headed straight to Stitch's Great Escape, it was probably around 3:15 or 3:30 at this point, we figured out where we were suppose to stand in line and were about the third group there. By 3:57pm, we had our wristbands on, admired how long the line was and headed off across the Hub towards Frontierland since we were (or more likely I was) determined to be first or close to the front of the line for the dwarves. After reading someone's ideal plan for MVMCP, I knew we had to be in line around 5:30pm and that first thing you should once having your MVMCP bracelet is getting a bite to eat. So we stopped at Pecos Bill and enjoyed all the cheese sauce our little hearts could handle.

Mine:
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Shelly:
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G:
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After dinner, I noticed my voice was starting to feel scratchy but I still felt great, we found where Woody and Jessie meet people and where the dwarves would be. No one was lined up for the dwarves yet, it probably wasn't even 5pm so we went over and rode BTMRR in the back. G and I had the back row and Shelly sat in the row in front of us taking photos. After that we went back to where the dwarves were going to be meeting people and hung out watching the families in line. All of a sudden it started to rain and they swooped in and moved Jessie and Woody under the overhang by the bathrooms, while the line was split into three groups, the people who stayed in line where Woody and Jessie were, people who didn't want to stand in line while it was raining and went away, and people who went under the overhang to stay dry.

The rain continued to come down and the wise CMs started a line under the overhang so people could continue to meet Woody and Jessie , they started bringing people from the overhang and then people who were still in line and we saw that this was not going to be a good place to stand and how do you know who was there first with two lines for one set of characters? G asked the CMs with Woody and Jessie if the queue that had hold the people to meet Woody and Jessie was the same queue that the set up would be for the dwarves and if so if we could go and start the line, because there were three benches over there and two of the benches had umbrellas over it. Obvious no brainer we could wait for the dwarves and stay dry and cement that we were the first people in line for them!

While sitting on the bench we watched this one lady in her family come up and tell the CM that they deserve to be in line to meet Woody and Jessie even though they had cut off one of the lines to focus on the line under the overhang and to get Woody and Jessie done for the day before the dwarves could come out. This ladies reasoning was that they were in line for Woody and Jessie but then the rain came so they left to do something else and now they were back so they should be allowed back in their place in line. She was getting pretty loud and rude about it and the CMs did what any good Disney CM did, they just let her get in line to shut her up. :confused3

Up next: Waiting the hour and half for the dwarves, more MVMCP, and time with Ann and her family!

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

Mmmm nacho cheese :lovestruc.

That sounds like it was going to become quite the scene at the character lines...I'm interested to hear how the next hour and a half progressed!

[Joyciemc]

Welcome back! Loving hearing about this trip, and can't wait to hear about your trip with your cousin, too!

Sooo... any chance you could swing a few days in May?

[annmarieda]

I really wish we had got to MK sooner! I just didn't realize how long check in and getting our bags etc. would take. Oh..and how long getting everyone up off those beds would take. :rolleyes:

I didn't even know Woody and Jessie were out there. When we got there, the line wasn't huge, but the dwarfs were under cover near the bathroom building. The line still wrapped in front of those umbrellas...

[lilpixiebabe101]

Can you believe I still haven't seen the Country Bears? I mean this trip was super quick so we kept it with rides in between everything else we had planned and I thought oh 10 days in January, I'll have plenty of time to do things I've never done before. Not completely true! I was very confused by that since other people with LGMHs in past trips have been so super nice and wanting to talk.




Have you really still never seen it?!?!?!? Its a must do for us every trip. Its corny as all get out, but a childhood classic and favorite :)

[tankgirl427]

Mmmm nacho cheese :lovestruc.

That sounds like it was going to become quite the scene at the character lines...I'm interested to hear how the next hour and a half progressed!

I really need to start updating this TR so you can find out. I love nacho cheese that you can add to anything.

Welcome back! Loving hearing about this trip, and can't wait to hear about your trip with your cousin, too!

Sooo... any chance you could swing a few days in May?

I really have to finish this TR so I can start on January. I could probably swing a few days in May if the airfare and prices of hotel were cheap enough. My sister is getting married this year and I was trying to get down there at the end of April for my birthday, but its really expensive!

I really wish we had got to MK sooner! I just didn't realize how long check in and getting our bags etc. would take. Oh..and how long getting everyone up off those beds would take. :rolleyes:

I didn't even know Woody and Jessie were out there. When we got there, the line wasn't huge, but the dwarfs were under cover near the bathroom building. The line still wrapped in front of those umbrellas...

I wish you were there earlier too! We had the best group of people we met and hung out with as you'll see once I get my act together and start writing again.

Have you really still never seen it?!?!?!? Its a must do for us every trip. Its corny as all get out, but a childhood classic and favorite :)

Yeah, one day I will see it.

[momabaarjo]

How on earth did I miss that you had a TR?:scared1:

[momabaarjo]

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[blessedmom4]

I am so thrilled this trip was better! I can't wait to get to the Point on my TR when we met. :flower3:
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